Ever since E3 concluded in July an immense amount of games were revealed and some of them were highly anticipated sequels like Red Dead Redemption 2, Devil May Cry 5 etc. One of the craziest E3 conclusion, which was less than 20 seconds but still managed to shake the world but in a positive way, was the reveal of The Elder Scrolls VI. Pete Hines has just revealed the Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI release date window in an interview with Eurogamer.
Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI Release Date Window Confirmed by Bethesda?
In an interview with Eurogamer, Pete Hines who is in charge of public relations and marketing of games published by Bethesda was asked a question,
When should we expect to hear more about Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI?
This is almost the same question which is asked by a lot of fans around the globe ever since Bethesda revealed Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI. Here’s a fact which might not surprise you, people have been asking more about TES VI than Fallout 76!
Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge fan of Bethesda games almost all of their titles but Fallout 76 doesn’t get me interested at all. I know that it is the gameplay that all matters but I mean it is almost the end of 2018 and the graphics does not do justice to the fans at all.
Bethesda has been avoiding this question for so long and now they have decided to answer that. Pete Hines response was,
A while from now and a really long while from now! Respectively. Actually, I should not be quite so dismissive of the question, which is to say – the timeframe for Bethesda Game Studios titles has not changed at all. What changed was our desire to lay out a roadmap of those titles, not like, hey they’re going to be putting out a game every nine months, no, it still takes them years in between projects, but because we were doing something so different on Fallout 76, taking that franchise in such a different direction, doing an online game that doesn’t look like something you’d expect from BGS, we thought it was important to say: hey, new IP, single player, sci-fi thing coming, hey we are doing TES6 after that. So that people didn’t start spinning off on, like, that’s the end of single player games from Bethesda Games Studios. Timeframe-wise, it would still be about as long as you’d expect when you look at Fallout 3 to Skyrim to Fallout 4 to Fallout 76. It’s still going to be those periods of time, that hasn’t changed. Or at least, I don’t think it will change from that based on what I know.
Conclusion
What Pete is emphasizing on here is that they don’t want to rush their titles and will release them in a chronological order as they have been doing since they became a big video game company. Not a company who releases a new title every 9 months lacking the quality and replayability. I got to agree with Pete here because I would love a game that is polished then some rushed buggy game that crashes all the time.
When to expect Starfield and TES VI now? How to get the Release Date window?
You must be wondering now, how can I get a release date window from Pete’s answer? Well, According to Pete,
Timeframe-wise, it would still be about as long as you’d expect when you look at Fallout 3 to Skyrim to Fallout 4 to Fallout 76.
Now, for getting a release date for Starfield and TES VI we know that Bethesda will be following their release cycle for Starfield and TES VI. Let’s get back to the chronological release date of some of the hit Bethesda titles to get the release date window:
The Elders Scroll III: Morrowind
Release date: May 1, 2002
Years spent in development: 4 Years
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Release date: March 20, 2006
Years spent in development: 4 Years
Fallout 3
Release date: October 28, 2008
Years spent in development: 6 Years
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Release Date: November 11, 2011
Years spent in development: 4 Years
Fallout 4
Release date: November 10, 2015
Years spent in development: 7 Years, 4 Years full time
Fallout 76
Release date: November 14, 2018
Time spent in development: 4 Years
Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI: Release Date
Now you may have noticed the time it will take for Bethesda to release AAA games like TES and Fallout. Considering the release dates above we can speculate a release date for Starfield as well as TES VI. The main point is there are at least 3 years in between the major releases. Bethesda reported that Starfield went into full-time development after Fallout 4 was released meaning that it is already been in development for 3 years now. If Bethesda continues their release cycle as Pete mentioned then we can expect Starfield 3 years after Fallout 76 meaning in around 2020-21.
Todd Howard and Next Generation Consoles
Another thing which we know that Todd Howard said various times that Starfield will be released on next-generation consoles. According to Sony and Microsoft, we can see the next generation consoles in 2020-2021. Making Starfield one of the flagship titles for the consoles.
Okay, let’s get to The Elder Scrolls VI now. Todd mentioned that they just started very early developments on TES6 and knowing the Bethesda release dates in mind it is very clear that we can expect The Elders Scrolls VI in 2024-2025. That means 13-14 years after TES V: Skyrim. What date is it today? 12th November 2018. That’s 6 years of waiting for a next TES title. Long wait indeed and justifies Pete statement:
It would still be about as long as you’d expect when you look at Fallout 3 to Skyrim to Fallout 4 to Fallout 76. It’s still going to be those periods of time, that hasn’t changed. Or at least, I don’t think it will change from that based on what I know.
That’s a mere speculation and I as well as all of the fans waiting for TES VI release, really hope that the game might be released earlier than what we have just speculated considering how big Bethesda is now and it will keep growing. The open world games are not that easy to make nowadays as it was a few years ago it would not be that surprising if it will take them 4-5 years to develop TES VI.
What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments down below.
[Source: ESO – Fallout and Elder Scrolls Guide]